team

Dr. Edwards, the founder and president of Alteristic, specializes in primary prevention and provides training and consultation in power-based personal violence, workplace harassment, capacity building, program implementation, strategic planning, and community mobilization. Her work has been the focus of multiple studies that show statistically significant reductions in interpersonal violence. In a career that has spanned over 25 years, she has held multiple positions in program management, teaching in higher education, and in counseling. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Texas Woman’s University.

Kristen co-leads Alteristic’s programs and training efforts and contributes to strategic planning, capacity building, and prevention program development. She provides training and technical assistance in power-based personal violence prevention. Prior to joining Alteristic, Kristen worked for a community based agency in Lexington, Ky., as the Education Coordinator and implemented Green Dot in middle schools, high schools, and colleges across the state. She also provided anti-violence presentations and workshops for the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky and medical and legal advocacy for survivors.

See Kristen in action!

Melissa Emmal is the Vice President of Operations and Strategic Partnerships at Alteristic. She provides training and technical assistance in power-based personal violence prevention and contributes to curriculum development. A native Alaskan with 14+ years of experience working to prevent and intervene against interpersonal violence, she was previously the Deputy Director at Alaska’s largest provider of domestic violence intervention and prevention services, Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis. From 2012 to 2015, Melissa took a leadership role in Alaska’s statewide implementation of the Green Dot initiative.

See Melissa in action!

Jaszmine is a Senior Trainer at Alteristic. She began her career researching gender-based violence in Dakar, Senegal, exploring the relationship between religion and self-advocacy. Wanting to return home, she pivoted to violence prevention and worked as a legal advocate in Saint Louis, assisting survivors of relationship violence with navigating the justice system. Since then, she has worked in legislative advocacy, crisis intervention, curriculum development, and prevention education. Jaszmine received her BA from Washington University in Saint Louis.

Jose Carval (he/him/el) is a Senior Trainer at Alteristic. Jose has spent the last six years doing violence intervention and prevention work in higher education, including implementing Green Dot at his alma mater, Florida State University. His passion areas include leadership development and supporting first-generation/low-income college students. He received his Bachelor’s from FSU. He grew up in Florida but currently lives in Pennsylvania with his husband and their fur babies, Abbey and Dooney.

Megan is a Project Manager at Alteristic. She has extensive experience in project and program management, primarily in higher education. For 15 years, she worked in public K-12 and higher education in a variety of roles including teacher, research assistant, advisor, student services manager, and project manager. She served as the Title IX subcommittee chair for the annual Utah Sexual Violence Conference during her time at the Utah System of Higher Education. She holds BS degrees from North Carolina State University and a master’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

DJ is the Director of Digital Content.  She primarily focuses on digital communications and production, as well as the development and oversight of Alteristic’s eLearning products. Previously DJ was the photo editor at Crosscut, a non-profit news organization in Seattle, where she oversaw daily photo department operations and managed visual projects. She began her career as a visual journalist for the USA Today Network in Florida covering international and national news, along with long-form documentary journalism. She grew up mostly in the Southeast, with most of her life spent in Kentucky. She has a BA in photojournalism from Western Kentucky University.

Darcie discovered her passion for violence prevention as an undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island, and has been in the field ever since. She worked as the Community Educ. & Involvement Coord. and Advocate at Safe Futures in New London, CT and sat on multiple statewide task forces with the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Most recently, Darcie was the Dir. of Sexual Violence Prevention and Advocacy at Connecticut College, which was one of the first colleges to implement Green Dot. She also coordinated the DOJ Campus Grant there and was an Adjunct Instructor.

Gail Schoolfield is the Executive Assistant at Alteristic. She provides direct support for the President, including scheduling, travel, communications, and coordination of daily operations of the President’s office. She has a degree in English (writing) from George Mason University. Prior to coming to Alteristic, she worked in the publishing industry for 35 years.